FIAF’s ‘Animation First’ Film Festival runs from January 23rd through January 28th.
Directors Daniel Minlo and Cyrille Masso’s “The Sacred Cave” have a lot of interesting lore to put forward for fans of animation, and with their feature film there are so much of the concepts about courage, and importance of family and culture embedded in the classic hero’s journey. The pair of directors knows exactly what kind of movie that they’re delivering, though, as they convey the classic tropes through a unique setting that we rarely see in modern mainstream animation. That should be a catch for animation buffs looking for something different.
In the heart of Africa’s equatorial forest, the king of Mabunos is poisoned by one of his subjects. Two close aids of the palace are tasked with traveling to a sacred cave in search of an antidote that will cure their ruler—and they only have seven days to succeed before he perishes. Throughout their vibrantly illustrated journey, they encounter spectacles and obstacles that defy explanation.
The Central African production is mostly animated with the digital format, and it works for the most part to bring to life this almost impossible conquest. Both directors have a keen eye for streamlining a lot of African folklore to transform them in to an engaging coming of age action film. I was rather invested in the journey our two heroes took. What hinders the film from feeling immersive, though, is the terrible sound design. Every sound effect is muffled, dialogue tends to sound distorted, and there’s no actual score that keeps the suspense heightened. So much of it feels like a lot of audio sessions without the conscious decision to allow us to escape in to this world appropriately.
Granted, most of the performances are spirited, but the just shoddy sound design was often distracting and destroyed any dramatic tension that the narrative was attempting to build. The editing also sinks any dramatic momentum the movie garners with a lot of gaps of silence between dialogue (thanks to the lack of a soundtrack), and clear lack of consistency during conversations. The voice director never though to cut everything with a tighter pacing, thus everyone sounds so robotic most of the time. It’s a shame because a movie like this is teeming with fascinating lore and wonderful mythology.
It just gets lost in a hodgepodge of technical issues that bog it down as a worthwhile experience. I can understand it being a low budgeted production, but the audio areas needed so much more polish and focus. “The Sacred Cave” could use a couple of remixes, and ten less minutes, but it’s a fine effort with a lot of creativity and magic in its corner.